Skara Brae What can we learn about life in the Stone Age from a study of Skara Brae?

The story of the discovery of Skara Brae

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Skara Brae

Stonehenge Skara Brae Farming 12,000 11,000 10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,0000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 500 Years ago

When did people live there? Settlement was inhabited between about 3100BC and 2500BC, with only minor changes of lifestyle during that time.

Radiocarbon results obtained from samples collected during these excavations indicate that occupation of Skara Brae began about 3180 BC with occupation continuing for about six hundred years. Around 2500 BC, after the climate changed, becoming much colder and wetter, the settlement may have been abandoned by its inhabitants.

What else was around at that time? Skara Brae was inhabited before the Egyptian pyramids were built, and flourished for centuries before construction began at Stonehenge. It is some 5,000 years old. But it is not its age alone that makes it so remarkable and so important. It is the degree to which it has been preserved. The structures of this village survive in impressive condition. So, amazingly, does the furniture in the village houses. Nowhere else in northern Europe are we able to see such rich evidence of how our remote ancestors actually lived. .

Sea wall

http://www.orkney.com/skara-brae

Clue 1 http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/Skara%20Brae%20(L)_tcm4-570163.jpg

Can you place the labels on the correct part of the house? http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/skarab1.htm

So how do we know..? ❶that the people living there were fishermen? ❷that they ate pigs and cattle? ❸that they grew crops? ❹ that their houses were dark? ❺that they were probably peaceful? ❻they had time to play games? ❼that they were possibly religious?

Clue 1 http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/Skara%20Brae%20(L)_tcm4-570163.jpg

Clue 2 The houses All the 9 houses are well-built of closely-fitting flat stone slabs. They were set into large mounds of midden (household refuse) and linked by covered passages. They were partly below ground. I wonder why? Protection for people or animals. There were no windows. Each house comprised a single room with a floor space of roughly 40sq m. The ‘fitted’ stone furniture within each room comprised a dresser, where prized objects were probably stored and displayed, two box-beds, a hearth centrally placed and small tanks set into the floor, perhaps for preparing fish bait.

Clue 3 50 people lived there. Seed grains from a midden (waste tip) suggested that barley was cultivated. Fish bones and shells are common in the middens, suggesting that dwellers added seafood to their diet.

Clue 4 The objects left behind A rich range of artefacts has been found. They include gaming dice, hand tools, pottery and jewellery (necklaces, beads, pendants and pins). Most remarkable are the richly carved stone objects, perhaps used in religious rituals. No weapons have been found and the settlement was not in an easily defended location, suggesting a peaceful life

Clue 5 Food waste Heaped between buildings were piles of refuse in which have been found: cattle, sheep, pigs, crops deer and seafood such as crabs.

Clue 6 The place for sleeping would have been filled with bracken and heather, and covered with animal skins.

The end of village life Village life appears to have ended around 2,500 BC. No one knows why. Some argue that it was because a huge sandstorm engulfed their houses, others that it was more gradual.

Why was it abandoned? As was the case at Pompeii, the inhabitants seem to have been taken by surprise and fled in haste, for many of their prized possessions, such as necklaces made from animal teeth and bone, or pins of walrus ivory, were left behind. The remains of choice meat joints were discovered in some of the beds, presumably forming part of the villagers' last supper’. One woman was in such haste that her necklace broke as she squeezed through the narrow doorway of her home, scattering a stream of beads along the passageway outside as she fled the encroaching sand.

Credits Image on slide 12 from Medicine through Time, Ian Dawson (John Murray) 1996, p.9 http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/Skara%20Brae%20(L)_tcm4-570163.jpg